Winter largemouth

[Justin Hawkins]

I live in western Washington where none of our lakes feeeze over and cold water temps may get in the low 40s. During the winter I fish for smallies primarily in 30-60 feet of water in the lakes I fish. I have noticed that in all the time I have fished deep flats and points near river channels, I’ve not one time caught a largemouth. Is it normal in fisheries where both smallies and largemouth coexist that the majority of the largemouths stay shallow? We had a club tournament today and I went all in for smallmouth and skunked but several big largemouth were caught skipping docks. I know it’s a prespawn transition time but water temps are still in the mid 40’s. Sorry for the rambling on, just very confused and feel very green.

[ttb31183]

I live in western Washington where none of our lakes feeeze over and cold water temps may get in the low 40s. During the winter I fish for smallies primarily in 30-60 feet of water in the lakes I fish. I have noticed that in all the time I have fished deep flats and points near river channels, I’ve not one time caught a largemouth. Is it normal in fisheries where both smallies and largemouth coexist that the majority of the largemouths stay shallow? We had a club tournament today and I went all in for smallmouth and skunked but several big largemouth were caught skipping docks. I know it’s a prespawn transition time but water temps are still in the mid 40’s. Sorry for the rambling on, just very confused and feel very green.

I live in Eastern Washington where it gets much colder and you can find a good largemouth bite shallow this time of year. My best locations are around emergent grass and lily pad stalks, sometimes two or three feet deep even with water in the low 40s. Swim jigs, spinnerbaits and ChatterBaits seem to work best early in the year.